


Stranded, Help!

by Lennie09



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Everyone Needs A Hug, Peter struggles with English, Peter struggles with being back on Terra, language barriers, more characters to be added probably, only slight though - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-26
Updated: 2018-07-22
Packaged: 2019-04-28 05:29:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,907
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14442369
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lennie09/pseuds/Lennie09
Summary: Peter Quill does what he knows best - doing something stupid. Which is why he winds up in the middle of New York. Misunderstandings ensue.Set just before Infinity War (like the start of the movie) however it doesn't happen.





	1. Chapter 1

_Hey, y'all, prepare yourself for the rubberband man. You've never heard a sound. Like the rubberband man_  
The crew of The Milano, aka The Guardians of The (Motherfucking) Galaxy, are currently found flying away from an explosion while singing, a green cube is floating in a stasis chamber, turning slightly. 

“I think we’re far enough, right?” Peter Quill, or his moniker Star-Lord if you prefer, called out above the song, not once pausing his dancing while piloting the ship. A noise of agreement can be heard somewhere in the ship, he assumes it was rocket grumbling. Peter proceeds to slow down the ship, parking it in the vast expanse of space. 

“Let’s take a look at what we have here then.” He gets out of his seat and walks over to where the cube is being held. 

“I’ve been looking at that thing for a while, I don’t think you should touch it Quill.” Rocket says, standing next to Peter. 

“It’ll be fine, anyway, what do you think it will do? Eat my hand. I’ve held an infinity stone I think I can handle a green cube. It's not even a nice shade of green, unlike someone I know.” Quill looks back to Gamora and winks. 

“Really? You said you were good at pick up lines, you might want to reassess that.” Gamora smiles/smirks. “And Rocket’s right, I don’t think you should touch it.”

“I’ll ask again, what is the worst it will do?” Peter reaches over and touches the cube, disappearing instantly in a green light. The team’s eyes widen. 

“That.” Rocket says, coupled with a sigh from the whole crew. 

 

\--------

Peter Quill instinctively activates his mask, unknowing of any threats that may be present. He tries to stand up but stumbles, his vision slightly blurry and his head pounding. He steadies himself as his vision clears. 

“Where am I?” His ears are ringing but he can hear muffled voices in the background shouting in a familiar yet unfamiliar language. 

“Shit, my translator must have broke.” Peter tries blinking away the last of the blurriness, he thinks he can see people, or at least the outline.

“Hey! Does anyone here speak Common?” The shouting gets louder as he stumbles around.   
“Uhhh, Xandarian?” He switches language. “What kind of planet has no one who can speak Common or Xandarian? Just my luck.”

The ringing in Peter’s ears die down and he startles as he recognises some of the words being said by these people, which he now recognises as Terrans, uh, Humans. 

“Hey!” “What… Shit” “Alien” _’Wait, alien, I’ve heard that word before. Shit where? Uhhh my Mum mentioned it yes! I’m definitely on Terra then. Huh, I knew I’d stopped thinking in English when my translator broke when I was a teenager. But I hadn’t realised how much I’d lost of my own language. Guess I can’t be surprised though, not like I’ve heard it since I was 8, my vocabulary wouldn’t have even been large.’_ Peter thought to himself, he picks up a few more works and observes as people point at him. 

Peter goes to retract his mask, maybe as a gesture of peace when a red and gold robot appears, speaking a few words in English in a threatening tone, Peter makes out about 2 words, hello and alien. Great start in communication. Peter raises his arms in a placating gesture, the robot must have taken it as a threat though and fired a laser from his hand. _’That’s cool, Rocket would love that. Gah!’_ Peter thinks as he jumps out of the way. If this is how he wants to play then bring it on.

He grabs his blasters and fires up his boots, until one of them fails and he faceplants straight into the ground. Peter groans as he feels metal clamp around his wrists. 

“Fuck” He mutters. 

\--------  
“Mr Stark.” FRIDAY said, cutting out Tony’s music as he works in the lab.

“What? Can’t you see I’m busy?” Tony snaps. “Yes I do see that boss, however a massive green light appeared in the middle of New York, followed by an explosion, followed by a humanoid alien appearing in a huge crater where the light was.” FRIDAY responds.

“Aliens? Shit.” Tony presses the triangle in his chest as his suit comes online, he flies out of the compound as fast as he can. 

When he arrives at the coordinates FRIDAY sent him, he positions himself hovering just above the ground, repulsors aimed at the alien. He isn’t exactly wearing what Tony thought aliens would wear, however he didn’t really know what he was expecting. The alien was dressed in dark leather looking pants, a dark grey shirt and an admittedly cool looking maroon jacket. Tony would actually have commended his (its?) taste in fashion if it wasn’t for the bug like mask _‘could be his face’_ that the alien was wearing. 

The alien was speaking as if posing a question, however, Tony did not recognise the language. But then goes silent. Tony takes this as a time to ‘introduce’ himself. 

“Hello, now I’m wondering what brought you to this planet but I advise you leave, I’d rather not have to deal with another alien invasion.” Tony spoke, the suit making his voice sound robotic. The alien reaches his arms up in what appears to be an ‘I surrender, take me to your leader’ pose until Tony spies a chip behind his ear and his hand becoming dangerously close to it, so he fires. 

The alien seems to be surprised, somehow he could tell even though the alien is wearing the mask, he did deduce in the end that yes it was a mask and not his face. The alien then proceeds to fire a blaster he got from underneath his jacket as his boots blasted him to the air, and back down again. 

Tony smirks slightly, reaching down he allows his nanobots to make a pair of handcuffs to go around the alien, he picks him up and flies him to the compound. Knocking him out with his fist just to be sure.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Language barriers are... fun.

“Am I the only one concerned about where Peter has disappeared to?” Gamora posed the question after a few seconds of them staring at where Quill used to be. “Yeah, seems like it.” Rocket responds.

“I am Groot” A teenage Groot speaks. 

“Groot agrees with me!” Gamora sighs. “Okay, where to start?” 

“Rocket, does the cube have a specific energy signature or something?” Gamora asks. Rocket runs into another room, returning holding a device of some sort, he points it at the cube and it makes a sound as the holoscreen lights up. 

“Seems like it. Aaaand, hold on.” He runs off again, holding an even bigger device. “We’re in luck, only one other place has a signature similar to it. 

“Where?” Drax asks, previously silent. 

“Terra”

\--------

Peter groans, pounding head now added to his long list of aches and pains. His world spins as he opens his eyes and straightens himself up. Peter notices that the handcuffs he felt being placed on his wrists earlier were gone, the metal man must be confident in his cell. 

He looks around, there’s a rudimentary bed in one corner and a toilet in the other. “I’ve had worse cells.” He mutters. 

Peter hears a door opens and looks to see a man with dark hair walk in. The man speaks and Peter recognises the voice as similar to the one that came out of the metal man. Peter sighs and shakes his head. He presses the chip behind his ear and his helmet retracts. He notices the man’s eyes widen slightly, mostly at his Terran appearance. He also notices that all of his weapons are gone, his jacket is still on though, he respects that. 

“English not good.” Peter gets out, laughing at himself internally at how bad he must be butchering his native language. 

The man, Peter dubs him as Goatee. Raises an eyebrow. Pointing to himself he says “Tony Stark.” Peter’s eyes light up. _’must be his name’_. “Name, Tony Stark”

“Peter Quill.” Peter says, noting another look of surprise at his also Terran-sounding name. Tony mutters something to himself. He proceeds to point to the ground and gesture around himself. 

“You, Earth?” Peter understands the world you. “You.” He responds, trying to get across his non-understanding of the word Earth. 

Tony reaches into his pocket and pulls out a rectangular device, after a few seconds of him typing into it he shows a picture of Terra and points at it. “Earth.”

“Ahhh! Me, Earth.” Tony’s eyes light up this time. “Anthony Edward Stark.” He says pointing to himself again. Peter quickly gets the meaning.

“Peter Jason Quill.”

Tony is back on the device again, this time taking quite a lot more time. He now shows Peter what seems to be a chunk of writing, he recognises the name of his Grandad, as well as the house that he grew up in. He assumes it’s about his being missing in 1988. Peter nods.

Tony smiles, then slaps himself in the face. He says a word quite loud. Followed by a sentence. He walks off leaving Peter to his own thoughts. 

\--------

Tony hears the alien mutter just before he opens the door, FRIDAY alerting him to the alien’s waking up. He previously seized the alien’s weapons while he was unconscious, excited as to when he can investigate them. From what he can tell so far, one part functions as a stun gun and the other as the more permanent kind of stun gun. Noting how the alien shot at him with what seemed to be the stun portion. 

“Looks like sleeping beauty is awake. So, how’s the head feeling?” He gets no response, he hears the alien sigh and shake his head. Tony stiffens as he sees the alien reach to the chip behind his ear, he tried to get the mask off earlier however got an electric shock so he left it. He prepares himself, but is surprised when the mask retracts revealing a very human looking face. _”well, just because he looks human, doesn’t mean he is, keep your guard up Tony.’_ He tells himself. 

“English not good.” The alien speaks, Tony resists the urge to laugh. But appreciates the attempt. Raising an eyebrow he wonders if this will work.

“Tony Stark” Tony says, pointing at himself. The alien’s eyes light up. “Name, Tony Stark” Tony repeats. 

“Peter Quill.” Sounds human. “Hmm, I wonder?” 

Pointing to the ground, Tony asks “You, Earth?” The alien looks confused, he repeats “You.” Tony realises he must not understand the word Earth. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out his phone, looking up a picture of the planet he shows it to the alien. Pointing at the blue orb “Earth.”

“Ahhh, Me, Earth.” Tony isn’t as surprised this time. _’Makes sense, though I’d love to know how he got into space… Waait.’_

“Anthony Edward Stark” He points to himself again. The alien picks it up quickly. “Peter Jason Quill.” Tony nods and goes on his phone again, this time accessing more private files, stuff he’d hacked into previously. He searches for the name ‘Peter Jason Quill’ and comes across a missing persons report. 

_Peter Jason Quill; Born 1980, reported missing in 1988, presumed dead._ The report then talks about the circumstances around the case, including mentions of his relatives. Tony shows the article to the alien who examines it, then nods.

Tony smiles at the confirmation. “Wait! Doesn’t Thor have that whole ‘All-Speak’ thing? I should give him a call, might help.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for the comments! Once translation comes in I will stop recounting with different perspectives, it just helps with everything for now.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thor arrives.

“Hey Thor! Thanks for coming… Wait, what’s with the eye patch?” Tony asked. “And what the hell happened to your hair?” 

“Well” Thor starts, “It’s a long story, different planets, gladiators, evil sisters, the usual.” He paces the room slightly. “I met Banner.”

“You did? Where is he?”

“Oh, just with my people - you did hear we’re on Earth now, Asgard has been destroyed.” Thor sounds distant.

“No… Asgard’s destroyed?” Thor nods. “Huh. Anyway I need your help.” Tony starts. Thor turns to him. 

“You know how you have that All-speak thing? Well, I have an alien here who cannot really understand English well so I need you to speak to him.” 

“Sure.”

“Wait really? I thought you’d be all ‘I have to return to my people’ or something.” 

“Where is he?” Tony walked Thor through the corridors and down to the cells where the alien sat chewing his fingernails, it took him a couple seconds to realise people were there - he startled and seemed to ask a question. 

“My name’s Thor, what is yours?” Thor asked in response. The alien responded with his name. Then asked another question.

“Yes, I am the Thor. I’ve heard your name before.” Peter paled.

“You are who they call the Lord of the Stars right?” Peter responded indignantly. 

“Oh, Star-Lord then?” Peter wore a smug smile, then said something to Thor, pointing to the back of his neck.

“His translator is fried apparently” Thor turned to Tony who seemed very confused. 

“Tony here is a mechanical genius, he may be able to fix it.” Thor told Peter who seemed to think it over. He responded.

“He’s allowing you to take a look at it, he’ll have to come out of his cell however.”  
“As long as he promises not to pull any tricks.” Thor relays the information back to which Peter nods in Tony’s direction. 

“Okay then.”

\--------

Peter looks up when Tony and a man with an eye patch walk in - something about him seems familiar but Quill can’t seem to place his finger on what. 

“Who are you?” Peter asks.

“My name’s Thor, what is yours?” He responds. Oh… so that’s where he recognises him from. 

“Peter Quill, you’re actually _the_ Thor?” 

“Yes, I am _the_ Thor. I’ve heard your name before.” Oh shit, does he know I’m an outlaw?

Before he can respond, Thor speaks again. “You are who they call the Lord of the Stars right?” Peter breathes an internal sigh of relief, but soon gets annoyed.

“It’s Star-Lord.”

“Oh, Star-Lord then?” Peter fills with pride that Thor, newly crowned King of Asgard got his name correct. 

“My translator’s broken” He says, pointing to the back of his neck.

“His translator is fried apparently” Thor speaks to Tony, then turns his head back to Peter.

“Tony here is a mechanical genius, he may be able to fix it.” Thor told him. Do I trust him? Well, I’d rather have this thing fixed than have to use an actual God as a translator. 

“Fine, he better not damage it further.”

“He’s allowing you to take a look at it, he’ll have to come out of his cell however.” Thor says to Tony. Tony responds. 

“He says not to pull any tricks but he’ll check it out.” Thor relays to Peter.

\--------

Tony stares at the small device which is in the back of Peter’s neck, after a bit of struggle he managed to convince Peter to create a small incision in the back of his neck. He looks it over and realises that he can simply pull it out temporarily. He does so and turns it over in his hands.

“Can you scan this FRIDAY?” “Yes sir.” A couple seconds pass.

“It seems to have short-circuited, it should be quite simple to fix.” Tony looks over the diagram that pops up and pinpoints where he’d have to reconnect a few wires and tweak it. 

“It’s amazing that a device this small can translate so many languages.” He mutters to himself, placing the device down and grabbing tools. He does what he needs to do and places it back into the spot where it was before. The device seems to meld back in, connecting to nerves - Peter jumps a bit but does not say anything.

Tony looks at the incision - it’s so small he only needs strips to close up the wound. He finds a first-aid kit and does so. 

“Can you understand me?” Peter says. 

“Yes I can, can you?” Peter nods. 

“Phew, that’s good. Gods, it’s sad how much I was butchering my native language.” Peter responds. 

“About that. So you were _abducted_ when you were what, eight?” Tony asks.

“Yup, first time back since. Place has definitely changed - seriously since when did you become so high-tech?” Peter asks

“Well, this building isn’t the standard for everywhere else on Earth - I am the forefront of technical innovation on this planet so it’s hard to compare.” Peter shrugs. 

“So how did you get here anyway?” Tony asks.

“Funny story actually. So my team and I find this green cube. I’m a curious person so I go to touch it - what’s the worst that can go wrong? Well, my team, always the party poopers - try to stop me. So, what do I do? I touch it. And suddenly I’m on Terra and surrounded by my own people who I can’t even understand anymore. Just your average day.” The way Peter tells the story really does sound like he’s just recounting what he had for breakfast. 

“Hopefully my team can find where I am and come pick me up.” Peter says, flopping down on the couch near him.

“And you think you can just crash here without my permission?” Tony asks.

“Yup, exactly what I’m gonna do.” 

‘Fucking aliens’ Tony thinks.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Woo! I'm back. Sorry for taking a while! My updates are probably going to be quite sporadic I apologise but I hope you like it!

**Author's Note:**

> I had to include Rubberband Man, especially after hearing it in the movie. Also yes Tony has his nanobots, they're great.


End file.
